Freddie Mac

Now it's Newt's turn. Having risen to the top in some opinion polls, the former speaker of the House is taking heat for large consulting fees paid to him by the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac for wisdom a New York Times editorial said was so simplistic it might have come from a fortune cookie. As Republican presidential candidates rise only to fall when their imperfections are brought to light, Republican voters risk disappointment in 2012 by playing the left's game on their turf and by their rules.

Who says Democrats and Republicans can't agree on budget cuts? The supercommittee charged with reducing the deficit by more than $1 trillion by Wednesday seems to have failed. But both parties apparently agree that the chopping should start with tens of millions of dollars that continues to be paid to executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the disgraced and bleeding mortgage giants. Last week the House Financial Services Committee voted, 52-4, to start paying Fannie/Freddie employees at more or less the same rate as other federal workers, which is essentially what they are. Alabama Republican and committee Chairman Spencer Bachus put it well, calling the pay "unfair, unreasonable and unjust to the taxpayers, whose assistance is the only thing keeping Fannie and Freddie afloat.

In 2009, President Barack Obama lifted the $400 billion cap off the bailout money that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could pass on to the taxpayers. Apparently, $400 billion wasn't enough. Fannie and Freddie are publicly owned. You and I own them and all the debt they are accumulating and passing on. At times, the administration has allowed companies like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to "buy their losses," a process by which a company gets to reduce their tax burden by giving cash in exchange for the bad debt.

The federal agency overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed to stop abuses by the mortgage giants' network of foreclosure attorneys for years before problems surfaced in news accounts, according to a report released Tuesday. The inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency looked into the agency's oversight of foreclosure attorneys for the mortgage financiers after Rep. Elijah E. Cummings in February sought an investigation of alleged abuses. The mortgage companies, which buy loans and mortgage securities, are regulated by the FHFA.

Mortgage giant Freddie Max reports the interest rate on 30-year mortgages have fallen to their lowest levels in more than 50 years. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.15 percent for the week ending today.  A 15-year fixed rate loan fell to 3.36 percent. Freddie Mac's chief economist credits the Fed's pledge to keep rates low for two years as one reason for the favorable terms. Plus, jitters over the European debt crisis also contributed to low rates.  

U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings is asking the agency overseeing Fannie Mae why the mortgage financier is letting an embattled law firm handle its Maryland foreclosures despite problems documented by sister company Freddie Mac. The Baltimore Democrat — in a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency late Wednesday — says information the regulator provided him in May about the Shapiro & Burson law firm "reveals a much more egregious level of...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been the underpinnings of American homeownership for decades, but now, thanks to their role in the collapse of the housing market, they are being targeted for massive reform or elimination. But as leaders in Congress and the Obama administration establish and pursue new policies to guide the housing finance system, it is critical that they preserve the historic and successful — though less well known — mandate of Fannie and Freddie to promote affordable rental housing for moderate and low-income households across the country, a population that is hit hardest by downturns such as the one currently battering our economy.

Freddie Mac has instructed its mortgage servicers to stop referring foreclosure cases to Shapiro & Burson, the Virginia law firm accused of improper handling of more than 1,000 deeds for Maryland homes in foreclosure, the mortgage giant said this week. Prosecutors in Prince George's County began investigating the firm in March after a paralegal formerly employed there filed a complaint alleging that deeds and foreclosure paperwork contained fraudulent signatures. Freddie Mac, one of the two huge mortgage companies that buys loans and mortgage securities, removed Shapiro & Burson from its Maryland designated-counsel list during an update this week.

Heather H. Murren's conclusion that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being criticized unfairly for their role in the recession of 2007 ("Don't blame Fannie or Freddie," March 4) is half-baked. Ms. Murren grossly understates the real impact these government-sponsored enterprises have had on the economic crisis our country is going through. She concludes that since only 37 percent of all mortgages obtained just before the meltdown began in 2006 were sponsored by Fannie and Freddie, government-sponsored enterprises did not provide the lion's share of mortgages and therefore should not be blamed for causing the meltdown.

More than two years since this country plunged into a financial crisis, countless Americans have lost their businesses, homes, savings and jobs. I am a native of Baltimore, but my current home is Nevada, which remains one of the hardest hit places in the country. So when I was asked to serve on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — which was tasked to explain what triggered the crisis — I accepted. Having spent part of my career on Wall Street, I was eager to have a chance to research and analyze the fundamental causes of the crisis.